Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia Digital Archive

Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia (La Russie Illustrée, Illustrated Russia) was a weekly literary and illustrated magazine, published in Paris from 1924-1939. The founding editor of the magazine, Miron Mironov, was a prominent Russian émigré journalist who had started his journalistic career in Russia honing his writing and editorial skills at prominent publications in St. Petersburg and Kyiv before leaving the country. The target demographic of the journal was the growing community of Russian emigres in France and elsewhere who left Russia behind in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. Contributing to the popular success of the journal were both its production quality and the quality of its content, which were lavishly underwritten by a coterie of wealthy benefactors in exile. As such, Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia was an unrivalled source of literary and cultural tidbits as well as long-form writing and serialized novels. Perhaps the greatest contributing factor to its success was the deliberately apolitical nature of the publication, unique among a growing list of Russian émigré publications of that time that were engaged in internecine ideological wars. The journal’s apoliticism had its limits, however, as communism and the Soviet authorities were periodically and mercilessly ridiculed on the pages of the publication, leaving no doubt as to its overall political orientation. Over the years the journal would become one of the most important, if not the most important, Russian émigré periodicals attracting literary and journalistic talent from the far-flung Russian diaspora communities. Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia remains an invaluable and unique repository of textual and visual representation, providing researchers with indispensable insight into Russian cultural life in exile.